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Summer Offensive
The 'Summer Offensive '(German: Sommeroffensive) was a decisive military operation during the German Civil War. The offensive began following the Bolshevik intervention in Germany. Initially resulting in gains made by the White Movement from January to May being erased, the offensive escalated in July and ended with the Treaty of Aachen and the end of the German Civil War with a Socialist victory. Background Throughout the autumn of 1919, the scattered German Red Army was able to make decisive gains over the railroad systems as the Bolsheviks had done in Russia. With much of the support base for the Reds lying in the Rhineland, taking control of the railroad connections to the Rhineland created a critical turning point in the war which enabled the Red Army to solidify its position in Central Germany. Using this solid position, the revolutionary leadership in Berlin correctly calculated they would need to push eastward to link up with the Bolsheviks, who had found itself in an increasingly heated conflict with Poland that would turn to war in April. By January 1920, the time was deemed right, with the divided forces of the White movement being ruled out as a serious threat for the moment. The push eastward was met with little opposition except for at Breslau, where a delaying action from White forces delayed the capture of Silesia until March, as well as East Prussia where White forces would establish a defensive stronghold. In the west, the previously strong positions along the railways became compromised by the diversion of resources to the east. From January to February the Red Army in the Rhineland was brought to the brink of destruction by a sudden coordinated offensive by the French and the White Army. In April, the Red strongholds in Stuttgart and Mainz were destroyed and the badly beaten Red Army was forced to retreat to the so called "Red Belt" from Cologne to the Ruhr. However, this was in vain, as Munster, Cologne, Osnabruck and Bonn had all fallen by the start of May. The contingents of the Red Army in the Rhineland that had survived had fallen back to the Ruhr and Frankfurt, where they mounted extended resistance campaigns which many historians argue prevented the collapse of the Red Army as a whole. This string of rapid defeats, combined with successful White Army pushes towards the outskirts of Berlin, Dresden and Munich, and further pushes along the whole front, prompted the immediate reorganization of the army and the beginning of the Summer Offensive in May. First Stage The first stage of the offensive, often known as the counteroffensive stage, was launched on May 7th with a mass Red counterattack in Berlin, Saxony and Schwerin which had come very close to falling to the Whites. This stage of the offensive mainly consisted of counterattacks direct towards retaking lost territory and establishing control of the railroad once again. This stage resulted in the destruction of the main concentration of White forces near Potsdam after supply lines were severed. The unexpectedly decisive and crippling outcome of this stage prompted the escalation to a full scale offensive and thereby the defeat of the White Movement. Category:German Civil War